Every second counts during terror attack: Chidambaram

Calls for constant improvements in techniques of NSG commandos

The government was anxious to see that “every minute and every second” of the response time of the security forces was saved to effectively tackle terror attacks, Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram said here on Monday. “We want to see that the commandos of the National Security Guard leave their base at Trimulgherry here within 20 minutes, reach the Hakimpet Air Force station in 15 minutes after that and are airborne in another half-an-hour,” he said.

Mr. Chidambaram was inaugurating the permanent infrastructure of the regional hub of the NSG in the military cantonment of Trimulgherry.

The Minister asked the NSG to see that the construction of similar hubs in Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai was completed by December 31. All of them were functioning in temporary accommodation since June 30, 2009.

The NSG Director-General was asked to continuously test the time taken by commandos to meet emergencies. The response was found to be satisfactory during a prank played by a passenger on an aircraft in New Delhi and a bomb blast at Agra.

Constant improvements

The NSG was the fighting arm against hijacking of planes and terror attacks. There was need for constant improvements in the techniques of its commandos so as to make them world class. They should get access to advanced equipment, technologies and communication systems.

“In the 26/11 Mumbai attack, we saw that the commandos did not have up-to-date communication sets as they carried out the operation. We do not want that to repeat,” Mr. Chidambaram said.

The Minister took pride in the huge amount of money spent on and improvement of training modules by the Central police establishments in the last three years. The expenditure was more than what was spent in the previous 15 to 20 years. “A good response to terror attack will follow if we have enough training and capacity.”

Sniffer dogs

Breeding and training of sniffer dogs would have a multiplier effect on the capability of the forces. But the Central Reserve Police Force had a shortage of 3,000 dogs. The Minister expected the NSG regional centre, which was coming up at Ibrahimpatnam here, to be a world-class facility to train commandos.

NSG Director-General R.K. Medhekar and Chairman and Managing Director of the National Buildings Construction Corporation V.P. Das spoke. The NBCC is involved in the construction of all the four regional hubs at a cost of Rs. 126 crore.